Technology – LODGING Magazinehttps://lodgingmagazine.com
Official Publication of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. LODGING covers hotel and hospitality industry news, tips, and trends.Tue, 18 Dec 2018 19:43:42 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.9Social Media Hits and Misseshttps://lodgingmagazine.com/social-media-hits-and-misses/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/social-media-hits-and-misses/#respondTue, 11 Dec 2018 14:10:55 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57967Social media connects our world, providing travelers a means to explore places and cultures before actually experiencing them. An account, hashtag, or a single photo has the power to transport, inform, and inspire travel decisions, just as a travel agent, family member’s slide show, or folded brochure did years ago. Travel planning was once a methodical process of flipping through Lonely Planet and Rick Steves books, or sitting down with a travel agent to finalize […]

]]>Social media connects our world, providing travelers a means to explore places and cultures before actually experiencing them. An account, hashtag, or a single photo has the power to transport, inform, and inspire travel decisions, just as a travel agent, family member’s slide show, or folded brochure did years ago.

Travel planning was once a methodical process of flipping through Lonely Planet and Rick Steves books, or sitting down with a travel agent to finalize regimented tours. These days, travelers seek information directly from their peers and associated social media accounts.

In 2017, 87 percent of millennials said they looked at some form of social media for travel inspiration and two-thirds visited a destination after seeing it on Instagram. Millennial travelers, in particular, seek out content from users they feel they can trust—whether a peer or celebrity. To them, a social post from a trusted account can often feel more authentic than a review in a magazine, and is more tangible than word of mouth.

Many hospitality and restaurant brands have turned to influencer marketing, hoping to reach millennials planning their next adventure. Influencers have the ability to come across as authentic and invoke a certain travel envy in their followers (i.e., fear of missing out). And while most Instagram users are aware that an influencer’s content may be paid, it can still feel more relatable than a Michelin Star rating.

Hospitality brands that have gained popularity for their “Gramworthy” locations are finding themselves nestled on influencers’ grids. As a result, they may experience booming success, with crowds rushing to imitate posted experiences. For this reason, many hotels have begun introducing new products and services, plus newly designed physical spaces, with Instagram in mind.

From the walls to the tabletops and even the bathrooms, owners are determined to create spaces that will invoke the perfect double-tapping photo opportunities. Steakhouse Boston Chops commissioned a $10,000 custom table with built-in adjustable lighting to assist customers in creating the perfect Instagram shot. Some restaurants have gone as far as to give Instagram kits to all their diners to inspire social documentation. It doesn’t just stop at the environment of a space—restaurants have created weird and wacky dishes, hoping their food will go viral.

Not All Good

Sometimes the battle to stand out from the competition can lead to undesired results. As with most trends, the formula is not always perfect. Restaurants and destinations have found it difficult to set themselves apart from the endless flow of increasingly monotonous shots of stacked hamburgers, banana leaf wallpapers, and P.O.V. feet/tile shots. Others have found their Instagram-induced popularity to be overwhelming and at times damaging to wildlife and the environment. Some companies find their inboxes flooded with over-the-top requests from influencers, resulting in a power struggle over expectations. Some locations have completely closed to tourists or influencers.

Communication Is Key

The nature of social media opens businesses up to public scrutiny. As mentioned above, millennials trust their peers to provide honest feedback, and social media is where they go to find this information. The visibility of both positive and negative comments means hotels must be attentive and responsive. Negative feedback left unattended reflects poorly on the property. Positive feedback must also be tended to, as customer engagement can be just as important as customer service.

Social media has dissolved the barrier between business and customer. Customer service preferences, information, and feedback is a click away. Questions and requests can be resolved with a Tweet or Facebook message, and some hotels have even introduced native apps, putting concierge services right at the fingertips of guests.

The rise of social media has fundamentally changed the hospitality and travel industries. It’s important to not just simply embrace the continued influence of social media, but to also keep up with the demanding fingers of potential guests scrolling through their feed, looking for their next travel-inspiring post.

]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/social-media-hits-and-misses/feed/0Four Companies Innovating Hotel F&B in 2018https://lodgingmagazine.com/four-companies-innovating-hotel-fb-in-2018/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/four-companies-innovating-hotel-fb-in-2018/#commentsTue, 11 Dec 2018 13:35:52 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57961A multi-faceted industry, there are more opportunities in hospitality to innovate, disrupt, and generally shake things up than in other business arenas. Innovating is exactly what hospitality leaders love to do. They incorporate new technologies in surprising ways, create inventive new processes and procedures, and break new ground wherever they go. LODGING recently turned the spotlight on more than a dozen executives and companies making a unique mark on the industry and influencing the course of […]

]]>A multi-faceted industry, there are more opportunities in hospitality to innovate, disrupt, and generally shake things up than in other business arenas. Innovating is exactly what hospitality leaders love to do. They incorporate new technologies in surprising ways, create inventive new processes and procedures, and break new ground wherever they go. LODGING recently turned the spotlight on more than a dozen executives and companies making a unique mark on the industry and influencing the course of its future. Below are four innovators in the hotel F&B space.

Verdical

As the farm-to-table movement continues to evolve, hotels and restaurants are looking for ways for their chefs—and, by extension, their guests—to get closer and more familiar with their food and its sources. This is what inspired the minds behind Verdical, a technology-based platform that empowers food service providers to grow all of their own greens and herbs in a very small footprint. Verdical worked with engineers from TE Connectivity, a global technology company that designs and manufactures connectivity and sensor products for harsh environments, to design needed sensors, lighting, and connectivity that “eliminates the distance between farm and fork.”

LODGING caught up with Andrew Deitz, CEO of Verdical, Terry Murphy, global director, strategy & business development at TE Connectivity, and Mohammad Ahmed, senior manager of R&D at TE Connectivity, to further discuss this leading-edge technology. Read the conversation here.

Ripple Maker

The Ripple Maker is a WiFi-enabled countertop printer that uses either coffee extract ink or malt- based ink to print images, logos, or even selfies on beverages in as little as 10 seconds. Because these inks are made without preservatives or artificial colorings, images are printed in their natural shades of brown and do not alter the taste of the drink.

Ripple Maker devices have a built-in library of hundreds of different images for use, and more images are uploaded regularly. Guests can also upload an image of their choosing to the Ripples ChatBot through Facebook Messenger.

CEO of Ripples Yossi Meshulam says that the Ripple Maker offers the hospitality industry a new way to connect with guests, whether it be printing a message on lattes or stamping a brand logo on cocktails during a meeting. “Hotels can easily turn a guest’s drink into a one-of-a-kind experience that makes their stay more personal and even encourage them to share their customized drinks with their peers and social media followers,” Meshulam says. “It’s easy to mix a cocktail the way a guest likes, but it’s a completely different and special experience to print their favorite photo on their drink.”

Impulsify

A point of sale (POS) system developed by a women-owned business out of Denver and tailored to hotels is working to make grab-andgo retail easier for guests and more costeffective for owners. Impulsify’s ImpulsePoint is a front-desk POS system that transacts sales, retrieves correct product and price information, and eliminates human error. Solving front-desk losses alone leads to a 15 to 20 percent increase in revenue, says Janine Williams, founder and CEO of Impulsify. Impulsify’s inventory tracking system allows for easy reordering of product, and the system can suggest pricing based on a database of 25,000 products. Using these recommended retail prices leads to a 58 to 62 percent profit margin, rather than the industry average of 42 percent, Williams says. “ImpulsePoint provides them every report they need to quickly and easily replenish, optimize product mix, and improve their retail performance without really needing to know anything about retail,” she adds.

Chicago Athletic Association

The Chicago Athletic Association hotel offers Shake Shack room service for guests—straight from the fast food stalwart’s location on the first floor of the hotel. The room service is offered daily from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. for guests and can be ordered through the existing in-room dining system.

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]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/four-companies-innovating-hotel-fb-in-2018/feed/1OpenKey Partners With SiteMinder To Expand Automated Mobile Key Accesshttps://lodgingmagazine.com/openkey-partners-with-siteminder-to-expand-automated-mobile-key-access/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/openkey-partners-with-siteminder-to-expand-automated-mobile-key-access/#respondTue, 11 Dec 2018 11:29:27 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57976DALLAS–OpenKey has announced a partnership with guest acquisition platform SiteMinder to make the delivery of mobile keys automated, faster, and more widely available to hotel properties worldwide. Together, the companies will reach more than 160 countries where their platforms are currently active. The automated mobile key delivery will be enabled by SiteMinder Exchange, a connectivity solution launched in the summer for creators of hotel property management systems (PMSs) and hotel applications. Hotel properties that subscribe […]

]]>DALLAS–OpenKey has announced a partnership with guest acquisition platform SiteMinder to make the delivery of mobile keys automated, faster, and more widely available to hotel properties worldwide. Together, the companies will reach more than 160 countries where their platforms are currently active.

The automated mobile key delivery will be enabled by SiteMinder Exchange, a connectivity solution launched in the summer for creators of hotel property management systems (PMSs) and hotel applications. Hotel properties that subscribe to both a SiteMinder Exchange-connected PMS and the OpenKey mobile platform will have access to this automated mobile key feature.

“More and more hotels have come to realize how employing the latest technology can mean a greater focus on delivering a seamless guest experience,” said Dai Williams, senior vice president of global partnerships at SiteMinder. “We are thrilled to collaborate with like-minded partners such as OpenKey, which have been instrumental in driving the change that seeks to meet the evolving needs of today’s travelers and the hotels where they stay.”

“As mobile key becomes the standard, our goal is to make it even faster and more convenient,” said Brian Shedd, vice president of sales and marketing for OpenKey. “Integration with solid partners such as SiteMinder will ensure that automatic mobile key delivery is the way of the future. We are proud to collaborate with them and deliver innovative solutions designed to perfect mobile hospitality.”

SiteMinder today services 30,000 hotels with guest acquisition solutions that generate $35 million in hotel revenue each year. OpenKey was founded in 2014 and recently opened a second office in Shanghai, China. Its mobile key technology can be found across 60 countries on six continents.

]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/openkey-partners-with-siteminder-to-expand-automated-mobile-key-access/feed/0Space Travel Company Orion Span Launches Crowdfunding Campaignhttps://lodgingmagazine.com/space-travel-company-orion-span-launches-crowdfunding-campaign/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/space-travel-company-orion-span-launches-crowdfunding-campaign/#respondMon, 10 Dec 2018 16:07:55 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57935HOUSTON—Orion Span, the space tourism company designing a luxury space hotel, announced a crowdfunding campaign for investors interested in the space tourism race. The campaign is live on SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding platform that has financed more than 220 companies across technology and consumer markets. “Orion Span is looking towards a bright future of making space more accessible to all. Partnering with SeedInvest and kicking off a crowdfunding campaign is the perfect opportunity to enable everyone […]

]]>HOUSTON—Orion Span, the space tourism company designing a luxury space hotel, announced a crowdfunding campaign for investors interested in the space tourism race. The campaign is live on SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding platform that has financed more than 220 companies across technology and consumer markets.

“Orion Span is looking towards a bright future of making space more accessible to all. Partnering with SeedInvest and kicking off a crowdfunding campaign is the perfect opportunity to enable everyone to invest in that bright future,” said Frank Bunger, chief executive officer and founder of Orion Span. “When we introduced Aurora Station earlier this year, we had an incredible, almost overwhelming response. It wasn’t a surprise, as there is so much excitement around the prospect of space travel right now. We’re thrilled to be opening up this project to the broader public, giving everyone a chance to chip in on the ultimate mission to colonize space, and share in this historic moment.”

Starting at $9.5 million per person, Orion Span’s 12-day trips to Aurora Station is projected to begin in 2022, providing an astronaut experience. Travelers will soar 200 miles above the Earth’s surface in Low Earth Orbit, or LEO, where they will be able to experience zero gravity, gaze at the northern and southern aurora through the many windows, soar over their hometowns, take part in research experiments such as growing food while in orbit (which they can take home with them as a souvenir), have a virtual reality experience on the holodeck, and stay in touch with their loved ones back home via high-speed wireless Internet access. A deposit of $80,000 is required for each traveler and can be placed by traditional payment methods as well as by cryptocurrency.

In addition to luxury stays on Aurora Station, Orion Span is also planning to provide opportunities for space research and astronaut services. With the overall mission of building and sustaining human communities in space, Orion Span plans to scale to demand.

]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/space-travel-company-orion-span-launches-crowdfunding-campaign/feed/0A New Perspective on Travelhttps://lodgingmagazine.com/a-new-perspective-on-travel/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/a-new-perspective-on-travel/#respondThu, 06 Dec 2018 14:28:55 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57855As someone who has been in the travel business for the better part of two decades, Cree Lawson is always curious during his own trips. He tells LODGING a story of a vacation in Alabama during which he asked a man at the front-desk at a small hotel where their guests come from. The man began listing the percentages of guests who came from certain states. Impressed by the information, Lawson asked where the hotel […]

]]>As someone who has been in the travel business for the better part of two decades, Cree Lawson is always curious during his own trips. He tells LODGING a story of a vacation in Alabama during which he asked a man at the front-desk at a small hotel where their guests come from. The man began listing the percentages of guests who came from certain states. Impressed by the information, Lawson asked where the hotel sourced its data. The man said, “I just go out in the parking lot and write down all the license plates.”

Lawson, the founder and CEO of travel location data company Arrivalist, explains that just as that small Alabama hotel used an astute observation to learn about their guests, Arrivalist observes the movement of people through the proxy of their mobile computing devices (i.e., their smartphones, laptops, and tablets). Unlike data services that measure particular campaigns or time periods using survey data or analytics, Arrivalist is always on and always measuring. “This data set gives us a new perspective on travel,” Lawson says. “A user in the iconic Vegas Strip may have stayed at Caesars Palace, but also visited the Luxor, Criss Angel Mindfreak, and New York-New York. We call it panoptic because we’re getting different perspectives on visitation than you can’t get from other sources.”

Indeed, today’s hotels are tapping into a number of sources for insights into guest behavior—from benchmarking reports to the hotel’s own booking and CRM data. Lawson says Arrivalist provides a panoptic view of a guests’ journey because the data on a guest’s trip is not limited to the length of that guest’s stay at the hotel or where the guest chooses to go outside a resort’s walls. The company’s live-reporting product unveils the customer’s physical journey within the market.

The data can also provide insights into a user’s digital path. With the growing number of devices used today by a single consumer, it’s easy to lose track of a user when they are planning and booking travel. “We can tie all the devices that a user owns together so that if they saw a video on one device, clicked an ad on another device, went to the website on a third device, and then they just walked in the door, we can track that user’s device data,” Lawson explains. “People can book a million different ways or see an ad on one device and book on another device. But there’s one common thread for success and that is who walks in the door. And 90 percent of the time, they’re carrying their mobile phone with them.”

Of course, that 90 percent of smartphone carriers may be skewed towards younger or more digitally savvy individuals. “What we do is we strike a balance between a big volume of the population and representativeness of the sample and we come out anywhere between 2 and 10 percent of the total population. Given the fact that we see 120,000,000 different devices move around the country, it’s almost always enough critical mass to measure and to get the insights our clients need,” Lawson explains.

The company has clients in more than 40 states and 130 markets throughout the United States. These clients are using Arrivalists’ data to better understand the behaviors of the guests visiting their markets and properties, some of which have integrated Arrivalist with their CRM system. Lawson says that the company is dedicated to remaining impartial and will not ever get into the business of targeting individuals guests with ads or offers. “We made a decision really early on to just provide measurement services,” Lawson explains. “We do not target media, because we want to be trustworthy when you try to decide which media is working.”

Through all this research, Lawson and his team have found some interesting insights about how guests choose and frequent hotels. One example is how road-warriors choose a roadside hotel. “We’ve worked with TripAdvisor for a long time. We know that for roadside hotels, they might read up reviews on the different hotels in the area, but then 9 times out of 10 for your traveling businessman, it’s where you get sleepy is where you stay,” Lawsons said. “What Arrivalists shows is the full picture. If somebody saw your ad and booked the way most hoteliers want them to book—through their website—we can see that. But we can also see the people who saw your ad or went to your website and just walked through the door.”

Asked about how this kind of technology could shape the future of travel, Lawson says that his vision is a future where marketers—whether cities or hotels—are more informed and able to provide better visitor experiences. “Before, you were reliant on somebody’s subjective opinion about what you ought to go see or do,” Lawson explains. “Now, with Arrivalist, the data tells that story. The data can say, where do people go and where should people go?” For hotels, insights into the most popular nearby attractions could lead to smart marketing tactics like bundling experiences with room packages.

“The more you know about your consumers and their behavior patterns—not from past-tense surveys and things like that, but actually from behavioral data like that guy in the parking lot who was reading license plates—the more informed you are as a marketer,” Lawson says. “The better experience you can provide to the consumer, the more likely that consumer is to come back and visit you again in the future.”

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]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/a-new-perspective-on-travel/feed/0Booking Holdings Completes Acquisition of HotelsCombinedhttps://lodgingmagazine.com/booking-holdings-completes-acquisition-of-hotelscombined/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/booking-holdings-completes-acquisition-of-hotelscombined/#respondWed, 05 Dec 2018 11:00:43 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57828NORWALK, Conn.—Booking Holdings has completed its previously announced plan to acquire hotel metasearch site HotelsCombined. With a strong presence in APAC and thousands of active affiliates worldwide, HotelsCombined will report into Booking Holdings’ travel metasearch brand, KAYAK. “We’ve admired HotelsCombined and their nimble, entrepreneurial culture for years. We are thrilled to welcome them to the KAYAK team and have them as part of our portfolio of brands,” said Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings. “Adding HotelsCombined […]

]]>NORWALK, Conn.—Booking Holdings has completed its previously announced plan to acquire hotel metasearch site HotelsCombined. With a strong presence in APAC and thousands of active affiliates worldwide, HotelsCombined will report into Booking Holdings’ travel metasearch brand, KAYAK.

“We’ve admired HotelsCombined and their nimble, entrepreneurial culture for years. We are thrilled to welcome them to the KAYAK team and have them as part of our portfolio of brands,” said Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings.

“Adding HotelsCombined to KAYAK’s portfolio of brands will help us reach more travelers globally and strengthen our hotels product,” said Steve Hafner, CEO of KAYAK.

HotelsCombined was founded in 2005 and is based in Sydney, Australia, with more than 150 employees.

]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/booking-holdings-completes-acquisition-of-hotelscombined/feed/0Three Technology Investments Hoteliers Should Consider for 2019https://lodgingmagazine.com/three-technology-investments-hoteliers-should-consider-for-2019/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/three-technology-investments-hoteliers-should-consider-for-2019/#respondTue, 04 Dec 2018 14:54:58 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57788Admit it: When you first unboxed your Amazon Alexa, you thought it was going to change your world. Your favorite song would begin playing when you walked in the door, curtains would open, coffee would be ready in the morning, and the lights would turn on right when and where you needed them. Life at home would be so easy. Turns out, that’s not exactly the experience we get with Alexa. In reality, the voice-command […]

]]>Admit it: When you first unboxed your Amazon Alexa, you thought it was going to change your world.

Your favorite song would begin playing when you walked in the door, curtains would open, coffee would be ready in the morning, and the lights would turn on right when and where you needed them. Life at home would be so easy.

Turns out, that’s not exactly the experience we get with Alexa. In reality, the voice-command device has a lot of limitations, it rarely understands you, and, most of the time, it’s easier to just walk over to the light switch. For most of the people, Alexa either sits on the counter collecting dust or has been unplugged and tucked away on a shelf somewhere.

Many of today’s so-called “hotel tech innovations” experience a similar lifecycle. The “hotel room of the future,” with all of its gadgets, seems a lot more gimmicky than practical.

That’s not to say there isn’t room for a technology disruption in hospitality. There is a real opportunity for hotels to transform the entire guest journey and create a more local, personal, and seamless lodging experience, leaving travelers much more satisfied.

However, this revolution may have less to do with voice technology, robot butlers, and smart mirrors, and more to do with innovation centered around infrastructure that helps hotels share data and make that data more actionable. Technology can pave the way for a better holistic hotel experience, not just an in-room experience. In fact, the most innovative technologies in travel are often those that don’t feel like tech at all.

Here are three technology investments that could make real differences in both guest satisfaction and hotel profitability.

Cloud Technology

Technology that supports hotels today is still predominately on property, which makes it hard to innovate on a large scale. Cloud architecture is the foundation not only for innovation, but also for success in today’s digital marketplace. Hotel companies prioritizing this modernization will benefit from a lower cost of IT ownership as well as improved scalability, security, and flexibility.

Less on-site hardware means less server maintenance. Additionally, cloud software allows users to log in and access the system and data from anywhere. Today’s cloud technology has more tangible benefits, such as the flexibility to add and remove parts as the hotel’s strategy changes, and the scalability to optimize the business as it grows. The benefits that modern cloud architecture brings will set early adopters apart.

Personalization

Personalization has become a buzzword and, without context, it’s hard to understand exactly why it’s such an important part of the industry’s future. Look at it this way: Guests want the entire travel experience to be easy, and the best way to do that is to know what they’ve done before, what they like, and ‘wow’ them with the right service and recommendations.

Hotel personalization is not about how bright the lights are when the guest walks into their guestroom. It’s about saving guests from the headache of having to search 16 sites to find the right room at the right price. It’s about connecting guests to a hotel to solve any issues or requests on the channels they prefer, from pre-stay all the way through follow-up. It’s about recommending amenities the guest would like and rewarding them appropriately for their loyalty.

Listen to guests and invest in personalization for the long term, not for the short term with shiny gadgets. By understanding guests, hoteliers can better shape the entire lodging experience.

Analytics and Artificial Intelligence

Consider all the digital touchpoints hotels have with their consumers—from the travel ‘dreaming’ phase through the shopping phase—and then how much data guests are leaving behind. This data is at the crux of understanding and anticipating guests’ wants and needs and providing a more seamless experience.

Until recently, fragmented and closed systems have been a major roadblock in making much of this data actionable. Once the data is centralized, hotels can start to do things like experiment with predictive pricing and merchandising, test different offers, and adjust rates in real time to maximize profitable bookings.

Use guest data to build a more personalized booking experience, measure those results across all channels for more accurate transactional data, and combine that analysis with demand signals to make the right offer to the right guest at the right time, all via a seamless and gratifying booking experience.

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]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/three-technology-investments-hoteliers-should-consider-for-2019/feed/0Identifying the “Shadow Guest”https://lodgingmagazine.com/identifying-the-shadow-guest/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/identifying-the-shadow-guest/#respondMon, 03 Dec 2018 14:59:20 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57759Identifying the “shadow guest”—or the unknown guest—presents an opportunity for digital marketers to increase their contact list for future retargeting. Touchpoints and technology can help identify those guests and retrieve their consent to market to them. To evaluate where to uncover demographical information and contact details of those shadow guests, a digital marketer should first look at the hotel or brand’s specific guest journey. This may involve drawing out every single point from pre-stay to post-stay […]

]]>Identifying the “shadow guest”—or the unknown guest—presents an opportunity for digital marketers to increase their contact list for future retargeting. Touchpoints and technology can help identify those guests and retrieve their consent to market to them.

To evaluate where to uncover demographical information and contact details of those shadow guests, a digital marketer should first look at the hotel or brand’s specific guest journey. This may involve drawing out every single point from pre-stay to post-stay to ask a critical question: “Are we targeting the shadow guest during their stay to drive loyalty?”

To drive loyalty from a shadow guest, marketers must evaluate the guest’s actual hotel stay as part of the customer journey. There are two core benefits that arise from focusing efforts on uncovering the shadow guest and leveraging during-stay technology to assist with this process.

1. Retargeting through advertising

Once a shadow guest is uncovered, digital marketers can create ad campaigns to re-engage these customers post-stay. Through retargeting, marketers can drive these once unknown guests to book direct and generate repeat visits.

2. Feedback to increase Guest Satisfaction Scores

Turn an unknown detractor into a known promoter. When capturing feedback, marketers receive guest contact data and can find opportunities for service recovery. They can also amplify positive feedback by encouraging previously unknown guests to post reviews online.

How To Identify the Shadow Guest

There are a number of strategies to uncover the shadow guest. Here are three digital touchpoints hotel marketers can leverage to convert an unknown guest to a known one.

1. WiFi

Travelers frequently connect their devices to the public WiFi network within a hotel. This process includes, most often, acceptance of terms and conditions through a WiFi gateway before accessing the internet. Within this gateway, digital marketers could look to ask for “opt-in consent” to access name and email for retargeting efforts. This data can be collected and pushed into a CRM system and marketing cloud.

2. QR Codes

QR Codes are readable 2D images that, when scanned by a smartphone, could trigger something to happen on the user’s device. This could include registering for programs, giving feedback, and learning more about a promotion. One of the byproducts of a QR scan could be the sharing of demographical details and contact info. Marketers could include QR codes on any printed materials and displayed on public screens.

3. Social Media

Social media monitoring and engagement will help marketers see who might be posting or tagging a hotel social handle. This could lead to digital marketers identifying shadow guests if monitored closely enough. Having a way to engage with them, observe their post, and find opportunities to carry that conversation into the physical world will help with the conversion from unknown to known. The key is to empower frontline teams to leverage social insights to better serve, surprise, and delight guests during their stay.

In conclusion, no matter how a marketer looks to leverage their digital toolkit, it is important to at least have a shadow guest strategy and ask the question: “How are we targeting the shadow guest during their stay?”

]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/identifying-the-shadow-guest/feed/0Marriott Reveals Breach of Starwood Guest Reservation Datahttps://lodgingmagazine.com/marriott-reveals-breach-of-starwood-guest-reservation-data/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/marriott-reveals-breach-of-starwood-guest-reservation-data/#respondFri, 30 Nov 2018 15:31:34 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57740Marriott today announced that the company has taken measures to investigate and address a data security incident involving the Starwood guest reservation database. On November 19, 2018, the investigation determined that there was unauthorized access to the database, which contained guest information relating to reservations at Starwood properties on or before September 10, 2018. The Starwood brands include W Hotels, St. Regis, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Element Hotels, Aloft Hotels, The […]

]]>Marriott today announced that the company has taken measures to investigate and address a data security incident involving the Starwood guest reservation database. On November 19, 2018, the investigation determined that there was unauthorized access to the database, which contained guest information relating to reservations at Starwood properties on or before September 10, 2018.

In its announcement, Marriott said that it received an alert on September 8, 2018, from an internal security tool regarding an attempt to access the Starwood guest reservation database in the United States. The company said that it then engaged security experts to help determine what occurred. During the investigation, Marriott learned that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood network since 2014. According to the company, Marriott recently discovered that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information, and took steps towards removing it. On November 19, 2018, Marriott was able to decrypt the information and determined that the contents were from the Starwood guest reservation database.

The company has not finished identifying duplicate information in the database, but believes it contains information on up to approximately 500 million guests who made a reservation at a Starwood property. For approximately 327 million of these guests, the information includes some combination of name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest (“SPG”) account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences. For some, the information also includes payment card numbers and payment card expiration dates, but the payment card numbers were encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard encryption (AES-128). There are two components needed to decrypt the payment card numbers, and at this point, Marriott has not been able to rule out the possibility that both were taken. For the remaining guests, the information was limited to name and sometimes other data such as mailing address, email address, or other information.

Marriott reported this incident to law enforcement and continues to support their investigation, the company says, adding that it has begun notifying regulatory authorities.

“We deeply regret this incident happened,” said Arne Sorenson, Marriott’s president and CEO. “We fell short of what our guests deserve and what we expect of ourselves. We are doing everything we can to support our guests, and using lessons learned to be better moving forward.”

“Today, Marriott is reaffirming our commitment to our guests around the world. We are working hard to ensure our guests have answers to questions about their personal information, with a dedicated website and call center. We will also continue to support the efforts of law enforcement and to work with leading security experts to improve. Finally, we are devoting the resources necessary to phase out Starwood systems and accelerate the ongoing security enhancements to our network,” Sorenson continued.

Guest Support

Marriott has taken the following steps to help guests monitor and protect their information:

Dedicated Website and Call Center
Marriott has established a dedicated website and call center to answer guests’ questions about the incident. The frequently-asked questions on info.starwoodhotels.com may be supplemented from time to time, the company says. The call center is open seven days a week and is available in multiple languages.

Free WebWatcher Enrollment
Marriott is providing guests the opportunity to enroll in WebWatcher free of charge for one year. WebWatcher monitors internet sites where personal information is shared and generates an alert to the consumer if evidence of the consumer’s personal information is found. Due to regulatory and other reasons, WebWatcher or similar products are not available in all countries. Guests from the United States who activate WebWatcher will also be provided fraud consultation services and reimbursement coverage for free. Guests can activate WebWatcher at info.starwoodhotels.com.

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]]>https://lodgingmagazine.com/marriott-reveals-breach-of-starwood-guest-reservation-data/feed/0The Room Key: Getting the Most From Your Hotel’s Distribution Mixhttps://lodgingmagazine.com/the-room-key-getting-the-most-from-your-hotels-distribution-mix/
https://lodgingmagazine.com/the-room-key-getting-the-most-from-your-hotels-distribution-mix/#respondFri, 30 Nov 2018 12:00:30 +0000https://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=57714The Room Key is LODGING’s advice column for hoteliers, managers, and team members at all levels of hospitality. Experts will answer questions on everything from operations and F&B to finance and marketing. Have a question for our experts? Submit it here. How can hotels get the most from their distribution mix? The answer is moving from the legacy approach of Revenue Management (built on targeting top-line revenue) to the more holistic discipline of Revenue Strategy (built on profit […]

]]>The Room Key is LODGING’s advice column for hoteliers, managers, and team members at all levels of hospitality. Experts will answer questions on everything from operations and F&B to finance and marketing. Have a question for our experts? Submit it here.

How can hotels get the most from their distribution mix?

The answer is moving from the legacy approach of Revenue Management (built on targeting top-line revenue) to the more holistic discipline of Revenue Strategy (built on profit contribution goals). Owners and operators can better focus on a shared goal of higher profit contribution if they align their goals to achieve the highest net revenue possible and expand coordination across revenue teams.

Pricing and inventory adjustments can produce marginal gains in occupancy and top-line room revenue. However, this focus can miss the opportunity to score the bigger wins by targeting a hotel’s optimal business mix—the blend of channel and segments yielding in the best net revenue a hotel can achieve. With hotels spending between 15 and 25 percent of guest-paid revenue to acquire their guests, understanding the profit contribution from each source and segment is now imperative.

The shift to Revenue Strategy won’t happen overnight. It is an evolution that is driven by the reality of the digital age and rising customer acquisition costs. While the large OTAs and search engines find ways to monetize their traffic, they will continue to tap huge resources to control user experience at the risk of disrupting the guest relationship with the hotel. This intermediation adds cost and, from an owner’s perspective, can lower asset values. Meanwhile, guests may experience reduced staffing and limited reinvestment in product—outcomes that are not good for the customer nor the industry.

The key building blocks for a hotel’s Optimal Business Mix are:

Set net RevPAR goals.

Document the costs by channel.

Quantify the most attractive opportunities with the highest contribution.

Then, revenue leaders in the previously siloed functions of revenue management, sales, digital, loyalty, call centers, marketing, and branding can execute on a cohesive strategy that enables the hotel to strive toward the targeted net revenue.

By empowering operators with the insights driven by profit contribution, knowing market demand, and the true costs of acquisition, revenue strategists can drive more to the bottom line, contributing to higher asset values, better guest experience, and a healthier industry.

The Room Key is LODGING’s advice column for hoteliers, managers, and team members at all levels of hospitality. Experts will answer questions on everything from operations and F&B to finance and marketing. Have a question for our experts? Submit it here.